Knight Capital loses shareholder vote on pay

JacobBunge

Knight Capital Group Inc.
KCG
shareholders on Wednesday voted against the executive pay structure at the U.S. brokerage and trading firm's annual shareholder meeting.

Shareholders voted down an advisory vote on Knight's executive compensation by a margin of around 2 to 1. Proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis & Co. LLC and Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. had recommended voting against the pay plan.

"Knight's board and management take seriously the design of compensation policies and procedures," said Knight Chief Executive Tom Joyce, speaking to shareholders after the vote.

Joyce's compensation last year totaled about $6.4 million, up from $6.2 million in 2010, according to a report from ISS.

Glass Lewis objected to the CEO's annual guaranteed bonus of $3 million and other bonus payments that were not linked closely enough to company performance.

The result extended a string of defeats handed to management teams by investors this year in votes around pay. Citigroup Inc. (C) investors last month rejected the banking firm's executive pay proposal, and the chief executive of insurer Aviva PLC (AV, AV.LN) resigned this week after shareholders challenged his compensation, following similar departures at two other U.K. companies, drugmaker AstraZeneca PLC (AZN, AZN.LN) and Trinity Mirror PLC (TNMRY, TNI.LN), a diversified media group.

Shares in Knight were recently up 1.7% at $13.11. The company makes markets in a variety of securities and financial instruments, and manages clients' trading.

The Jersey City, N.J., company announced a restructuring last year following a three-year decline in stock trading activity that has also weighed on Wall Street banks and exchanges.

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